Ilia Topuria Establishes Himself as the New Boogeyman of MMA at UFC 308

October 29, 2024
4 hours

Dana White and the UFC need to schedule an event in Spain as soon as possible. Featherweight champion Ilia Topuria’s star is burning bright. Topuria, a native of Georgia but a resident of Spain, is a powerful striker who could be the promotion’s next big star.

While Topuria impressed with a third-round knockout of former champion Max Holloway, the UFC’s next challenge will be marketing Topuria correctly. He is undefeated and has the power to finish any opponent. However, MMAfighting latest news shows that you must be able to sell the fights to be a true superstar and draw in casual viewers.

Knocking out Holloway impressed many long-time fans. Holloway hadn’t previously been knocked out in 32 professional fights. Holloway could stand and strike with Topuria in the first two rounds but ultimately wilted under Topuria’s power.Topuria has made an impressive climb through the UFC ladder. He knocked out long-time champion Alexander Volkanovski earlier in 2024 to claim the belt. While Topuria has already been talking about fighting in other weight divisions, he has a chance to stake his claim among the best featherweights of all time.

Chimaev Gets Back on the Horse

Khamzat Chimaev’s most difficult opponent may be against bad luck and illness. It’s hard to imagine what anyone in the UFC’s middleweight division can do to slow him down. Chimaev struggled to make weight before his fight with Robert Whittaker on Saturday.

But when the two men made it into the octagon, Whittaker, a former champion, had no answers for Chimaev. Chimaev leaned on his excellent grappling to get Whittaker down along the fence. When Chimaev locked up a face crank, it did significant damage to Whittaker’s jaw.

Chimaev is now back in the middleweight title picture again. The big question is whether he can be active enough to win the belt. Since 2021, Chimaev has only fought four times.

Chimaev is 14-0 in his career, with six submissions and six knockout wins to his credit. There is a question of how quickly Chimaev will go up the rankings. Chimaev was ranked No. 13 before beating Whittaker, who was No. 3. There is a chance Chimaev may be picked to fight the winner of Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis for the belt next.

If the UFC wants him to take another fight in between, he would be an interesting challenger for Israel Adesanya.

Ankalaev Needs the Next Title Shot at Light Heavyweight

There may be a fear in the UFC of how having too many grappling-heavy champions can impact business. But after Ankalaev picked up a decision win over Aleksander Rakić, MMA breaking news shows that White said Ankalaev is next in line to fight light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.

As he should be: Ankalaev is on a 13-fight unbeaten streak and is 19-1 in his career. However, Ankalaev’s first title challenge didn’t go as he hoped. Anakalaev fought former champion Jan Błachowicz at UFC 282, ending in a split draw.

However, because the fight didn’t produce many memorable moments, Ankalaev was tagged as having a boring style. White was so disappointed with that fight that neither man earned an opportunity for a rematch. The belt was left vacant for a few months while a new fight was put together.

Lerone Murphy Survives Dan Ige

Dan Ige isn’t an opponent that anyone can afford to take on lightly. Ige enjoys getting into heavy-volume striking matchups and is willing to fight on a moment’s notice. Murphy, who still sports an unbeaten record, got a taste of why fighting Ige was so difficult.

Murphy was knocked down in the first round but ultimately rallied to pick up a 29-28 decision on all three judges’ scorecards. Murphy leaned on his power and could wear away at Ige as the fight went on.

Shara Bullet Delivers Crazy Knockout

Sharabutdin Magomedov has delivered a few disappointing performances since coming to the UFC. While Magomedov has always flashed a ton of power, he didn’t always have enough volume to put away more difficult opponents. In the toughest test during his career so far, Magomedov figured out the key to put away Armen Petrosyan.

While a spinning back fist is usually enough to put away an opponent if done right, Magomedov doubled up on the attack. He hit Petrosyan with two spinning back fists to bring the fight to a stop late in the second round.

End May be Near for Rafael dos Anjos

Former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, 40, is still a competitive fighter at his age. While he may never reach the top of his weight class again, dos Anjos would like to wrap up his career in a different fashion than what happened in his fight with Geoff Neal.

Dos Anjos suffered an injury in the first round. Both men had primarily been engaged in a striking battle before that. Neal had landed a nice combination, but then dos Anjos suddenly fell back with pain in his knee. Dos Anjos has now lost four of his past five fights.

Neal was likely disappointed by the result as well. He would have liked to put together a good performance to keep climbing up the rankings.

Here are the results from the rest of the fights not mentioned above:

Light heavyweight, Ibo Aslan win by TKO (punches) over Raffael Cerqueira, Round 1 :51

Catchweight, Mateusz Rębecki win by split decision over Myktybek Orolbai, 29-28 (Rębecki x2), Orolbai 29-28

Middleweight, Abusupiyan Magomedov win by submission (arm-triangle choke) over Brunno Ferreira, Round 3 3:14

Heavyweight, Kennedy Nzechukwu win by TKO (knee to body and punches) over Chris Barnett, Round 1 4:27

Featherweight, Farid Basharat win by decision over Victory Hugo, 30-27, 29-28 (x2)

Middleweight, Ismail Naurdiev win by decision over Bruno Silva, 30-27 (x3)

Welterweight, Rinat Fakhretdinov win by decision over Carlos Leal, 30-27, 29-28 (x2)

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By Dean McHugh.

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